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10 September 2018

Tuesday 11 September 2018

AUGUST WIND OUTPUT SETS RECORD – WWF Scotland comment

The sun may have been a little shy in Scotland during August, but the windy conditions led to a record output for the month. [1]

Dr Sam Gardner, acting director at WWF Scotland said:

“We may have all been reaching for a sweater during August as the sun became a little shy after a glorious June and July, but the windy conditions produced the highest August output since 2014.

“Turbines produced enough electricity to power nearly 3 million homes, that’s 115 per cent of all Scottish households.”

Best day – 24 August 2018, generation was 77,734 MWh, powering 6.4m homes, 261% households. Demand that day was 53,070MWh – wind generation was 146% of that.

Worst day – 20 August 2018 when generation was 4,039MWh, powering 332,428 homes, just 14% of households

How many days generation was over 100% of households – 15

How many days generation was over 100% of Scottish demand – 7

“This new record provides more evidence that renewables remain a key component of our power system, cutting climate pollution and creating jobs. However mature technologies such as wind and solar are being locked out of the market by the UK Government. They must be allowed to compete to give a fair deal to consumers and to reduce the cost of cutting emissions. [2]

“As we move to a flexible, renewable system we will need to match generation growth with greater storage, flexibility and efforts to reduce our demand for electricity in the first place.”

“August was a perfect example of flexible energy production from renewables. As solar production dips with the changing weather wind production produces record results.”

Notes to Editors

[1] Part of a joint project to help the public better understand the nation’s renewable energy resource, the data is provided by WeatherEnergy, part of the European EnergizAIR project, supported by the Intelligent Energy Europe Programme, led by the European Agency for Competiveness and Innovation (EACI).Severn Wye Energy Agency is the UK partner.